Three doors led from the hall, one to the kitchen and two to bedrooms. He made a quick survey of the other rooms, but found nothing noteworthy. One bedroom was used as Phillip’s work room, where he did his painting. The rug on the floor carried countless paint blotches and drops of different hues. The other bedroom had a double bed and a couple of cupboards with clothes in it. A small locked steel almirah stood in one corner, which Athreya didn’t attempt to open. That was best left to the police.
A minute later, he was back in the veranda, and the padlock was back in its place. Just as he approached the gate, he saw Dora returning from the resort’s main building to its gate. He hurried to her on his cycle.
All she had learnt was that Murthy was still fast asleep, and the other guest–a young man, as the security guard had said–was sleeping it off after being stoned for much of the previous day and all of the night. He hadn’t stirred from his room since 4 p.m. the previous afternoon.
When they returned to Greybrooke Manor, they found Bahadur, the Gurkha guard, at the rock garden, scrutinizing the lawn with obvious disapproval. On hearing the approach of the two cycles, he looked up and threw them a salute, grinning from ear to ear.
‘Namaskar, madam! Namaskar, sir!’ he called.
‘Good morning, Bahadur,’ Dora replied. ‘What are you looking at?’
‘Cigarettes, madam. Someone has littered the place with cigarette butts.’
Athreya leapt off his cycle and joined Bahadur. Scattered on the grass were half a dozen cigarette butts. Some of them were regular cigarettes with white bodies and yellow filters. But a couple of them were thinner and dark brown in colour. Two people had smoked here. Judging by the number of butts, they must have been here for a while. On the stone bench was an empty packet of Gold Flake cigarettes.
‘Weren’t these there last evening?’ Athreya asked.
‘No, sir. The gardener swept the entire lawn last evening. Bada Saab likes the garden neat and clean during parties.’
‘Who could it have been?’ Dora asked as she joined them. ‘All of us were around the inner lawn–the rose garden, Sunset Deck and thereabouts. I wonder if anyone came here. Did you see anyone, Bahadur?’
‘No, madam. But it was so foggy that I could have missed someone sitting here.’
‘Two people,’ Athreya said quietly. ‘There were two people here. There are two kinds of cigarettes.’
‘Abbas smokes the thin, brown one. “More”, I think it is called.’
‘Who else smokes, Dora?’
‘Nobody in the family, except Uncle, who occasionally enjoys his pipe or cigar. He doesn’t touch cigarettes.’
‘Richie?’ Athreya asked.
Dora shook her head. ‘Both of us hate cigarette smoke. Sebastian doesn’t smoke either. I don’t know about Mr Varadan.’
‘Phillip?’
Dora looked up sharply. ‘Funny that I didn’t think of him … now that he is dead. I haven’t seen him smoke, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t.’
‘Ganesh? Jilsy?’
‘Oh, Ganesh smokes like a chimney. Especially when he drinks. You would have seen him puffing away last evening. But I wonder if he was in a position to walk all the way here in his drunken state.’
‘Yes … provided he was truly drunk. What about his wife?’
‘She doesn’t, as far as I know. She hates it when he blows smoke in her face. That leaves Father Tobias. I wouldn’t expect priests to smoke.’
‘The priest told me to give you his thanks,’ Bahadur interrupted on hearing the cleric’s name. ‘He left early in the morning, when it was still dark. About 5 a.m.’
‘Father Tobias has left?’ Athreya asked, surprised.
‘He has a morning service to conduct,’ Dora explained. ‘It’ll take him a couple of hours to reach his church if he has to go around the landslide. He had said last night that he would be leaving very early.’
‘Did he say anything to you, Bahadur?’ Athreya asked in Hindi.
‘He talked to me for two minutes as I opened the gate for him, sir. He asked me how my family back home was, and asked me to pray for them. He also asked me to pray for my employers, who have given me food, shelter and money.’
‘Was he carrying anything when he left?’
‘No, sir. Nothing.’
‘Okay. Did you see anyone else during the night or in the morning?’
Bahadur shook his head. ‘Only Sebastian Sir. He’s gone out on his motorcycle.’
‘Did you hear anything or anybody in the night? Anything unusual?’
Bahadur shook his head again. ‘The gate was locked all night. Nobody came in or went out.’
‘Thanks, Bahadur.’ Athreya turned to his cycle. ‘Come, Dora, let us go indoors. People must be up and about by now.’
They were. When Athreya and Dora entered the hall, they were confronted by a group of six anxious people.
‘Where have you been?’ Michelle demanded. ‘What happened?’
‘Why?’ Dora asked.
‘Manu and Uncle are nowhere to be seen. Sebastian has gone off on his bike early in the morning. You two were missing. Gopal and Murugan gave some yarn about them being locked in, and avoided questions thereafter. What’s happening here?’
Dora didn’t answer, and instead looked at Athreya for guidance. Six other faces–Michelle, Richie, Abbas, Varadan, Jilsy and Ganesh–turned towards him. Athreya stepped forward.
‘I have bad news,’ he said softly. ‘There has been a murder.’
The six people reacted very differently. Michelle gasped loudly, while Jilsy cringed and grabbed her husband’s arm. As Ganesh gaped stupidly at Athreya, Varadan’s intelligent eyes narrowed a trifle. Next to a poker-faced Abbas, Richie flared up angrily.
‘Is this a joke?’ he demanded. ‘Or a game for a weekend party? If so, it is in very poor taste.’
‘I’m afraid not, Richie,’ Athreya replied calmly. ‘There is a dead man in
